journeying with more joy.

Imagine

Y’all know me; I’m a journeyman and a fool. The archetype of The Fool is rich – far beyond the colloquial use of the word.

We are all fools. No matter how much knowledge and experience we tuck under our hat and belt, we are still ignorant beyond our wildest dreams. That’s because of time. We can only remember the past and thus the future will always hold surprises.

And yet, there is hope. We may never learn to construct our futures the way we assemble a sandwich, but we can at least place our future into a ballpark of our own design. What row we sit in may still be a mystery. How good a view and what characters sit around us may still surprise. But the game we observe and the general weather of the day can be chosen.

Part of learning is through observing what is and what has been. Today is 12/18 and what is clear in our memory is the recent past. What remains to be seen is our future.

Allow me another journey; I promise it will not be long.

Sitting where you are and when you are, pick an experience from your recent past – any experience at all. The bravest among you might choose something painful. Others may choose the best of the recent past. In either case, pick something you can remember, in detail, including how it felt.

Consider that experience is the tail end of manifestation. Thought is the leading edge. In between there is imagination and feeling.

Now – hold the recent past experience in your mind’s eye, and ear, and heart. Remember the experience – what you saw, what you felt, and what you thought while it was happening. Notice the richness of the experience. Be it pleasant or painful, it was real.

Now search further back in time. For each detail experienced, find a time when you’ve seen or felt it before. Don’t just look in your experiential history, but also in your virtual history. Have you ever read of events like what you experienced? Have you ever seen similar occurrences in movies, TV shows, or commercials?

If you are thorough about it, you can find the source of every detail. You can find where you’ve entertained the idea or feeling before. You can find the source of the inspiration. If you were frightened by recent events, then you will be able to find that same fear in your past – whether induced by an actual event or imagined.

Now, consider your future. Consider the ballpark that you will visit – sooner than later. What do you want that day to be like? What kind of game do you want to witness? What kind of interaction do you want to have with the people around you? Do you want to fight with them? Or do you want to slap hands and laugh with them?

And now come back to your present. What are you filling your mind and heart with today? How much violence are you watching on the TV? How much disturbing news are you raking through? How much fear are you feeding your soul? What fights are you preparing for? Or what wars?

So many people cannot believe what has happened in our (relatively) recent past – in Connecticut, in Syria, in Japan, or just around the corner from you. Then there are the ones who will tell you who are to blame. Politicians will say one thing and TV actors another.

And yet, if you experienced anything, then you had your hand in creating it. You may not have contributed to the actual event in any way, but you did create your experience of it. That’s what Ho’oponopono says.

You are so powerful, that whatever you can picture in your mind, you can create. Thank God it is not merely as simple as that. Thought is the start and experience the end, but feeling and imagination are in the middle. When you see or think something unpleasant, think again. Guide your imagination and feelings toward what you do want. Then, the next time you tell someone that what just happened was unbelievable, it will have been a miracle rather than a travesty.

Sometimes the Universe surprises us by making real our fantasies. The foolish part is that we are surprised. That is because the role of this universe is to create, as experience, those images and ideas we fantasize about. That is the primary purpose of this reality!

If you wish your future to be different than your past, then choose your fantasies more wisely. Manifestation being what it is, we cannot stop creating horrific scenes until we stop filling our minds’ eyes with them. The news is not the only source. If you want physical devices to go away, stop focusing on them. If you want unpleasant experiences to stop happening to you or others around you, find better ways to exercise your imagination. And remember worry is simply imagining something feared.

Believe me, I’m a world class fool, but thankfully I’ve been imagining the wise ones well enough to experience their wisdom guiding me, and as much as I want to blame others for my pain, I know the wise ones are right: I am the sole creator of my own experience.